Charlie had to admit, what happened earlier did make her suspect something was wrong. They all knew Alastor had been acting odd for over a month but this was too strange to go unquestioned.

Things had become far too strange for Charlie. She knew Hell was home to the strangest creatures, but this was something she hadn't encountered before. Alastor had never behaved like this before and no one knew what was wrong with him. Normally she'd dismiss it but Alastor's behavior was becoming hard to ignore and it was near impossible to ignore the issue as they became more obvious.

It was becoming obvious that something was going on with Alastor, and while she didn't know what, it was clearly going to become a problem if it wasn't addressed sooner or later.

'First the change in appearance, the odd speech pattern and personality and now this? What's next? He'll be rainbow tomorrow with the rate strange things keep happening...If he just told us this would be so much easier.'

She then caught sight of Niffty and Husk, the smaller demon cleaning the counter while Husk was drinking a bottle of booze.

"Hey Husk! Hey Niffty! Can I speak with you two for a moment? It's important."

Niffty shrugged,"I don't see why not."

"What do you want?" Husk asked flatly.

"It's about Alastor."

"Is something wrong?"

The cat scoffed,"Something's always wrong with that nut-job. What is it this time? Did he do something stupid again?"

"Um no...He's just acting strange…"

"He's been acting strange for well over a month. He's been out of character for a while now, I thought you noticed…You slow or something princess?" Husk said.

"I did notice, I just didn't think it was that big of a deal. But...I saw him using vapes."

"He knows what those are?" Niffty asked. She had heard of vapes but never tried them. She didn't like smoking because of the mess it left behind and the smell did ruin the atmosphere. It was why she disliked cleaning up Angel's cigarette buds.

"Apparently. He must know about them if he was smoking them."

"You're joking right?" Husk asked,"Cause the craziest thing I've ever heard. You've gotta be fucking with us. No way would Al use that shit."

"But I saw it with my own eyes. He was vaping. I don't know what else he was doing out there but I don't like it."

"Was he using it for anything?"

"Not that I saw, though he did seem to straighten up and act aloof when I showed up so he probably stopped what he was doing when he heard me coming."

"Typical Al, he doesn't like people knowing what he's doing in his free time…" Husk asked,"Though I gotta admit, something is up with him and it's starting to piss me off. Like he deflects every time we ask him yet he keeps acting suspicious around us. Like what the hell is his problem?"

"Don't look at me," Charlie said,"I know just as much as you do."

"So why were you even out there?" Niffty asked,"I thought you didn't like going outside most of the time."

"I prefer being indoors but I didn't notice the door was open a little so I went to close it. I noticed Alastor there and decided to approach him."

"Did he say anything that would tip you off about what was wrong with him?"

"Not really. When I asked him why he was out so late he just said that he wanted to be by himself…"

"He spends most of his time by himself," Niffty mentioned,"He never hangs out around us anymore…."

"Probably because he knows we'll question his ass for the shit he's pulling…" Husk muttered,"Seriously, this odd behavior of his is getting on my nerves. The fact he isn't telling us anything is making me mad."

"Yeah, it's kind of making me worried. Alastor has never acted like this before, there might be something going on and he's trying to keep us out of the loop for some reason. Do you think...there's something wrong with him up there?"

"Who knows what's going on in that head of his," The cat stated,"All I know is that he's trying to pull something under our noses and that it ain't gonna end well if we don't find out. "

"Well what do you suppose we do? Al ignores or defects when we question him. It's not like we can force him to answer us. Besides, knowing him, he'll just teleport away if things get tight."

"Maybe if we confront him with more evidence we can get him to confess what's wrong with him."

"More evidence? Don't we have plenty of evidence something's going on?"

"Well we don't really know the cause, all we know is that it has something to do with Vox."

"Yeah, they've had that rivalry shtick going on for years. Though I don't get Al's trying to gain, it must be something big if he's doing his best to keep it a secret from the rest of us…"

Charlie narrowed her eyes, placing her hands on her face. Her mind was now in deep thought as she twisted her lip,"Hmm…There's gotta be something we can do…Wait..I got it! This will have to work!"

"Got what?"

"A plan! Don't worry, I think I'm onto something. If this works, I can get something out of him."

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